Modern computing devices—such as laptop computers, media players, hand-held devices, etc.—often incorporate a touchpad component as a pointing device. The touchpad, which typically includes a capacitive or resistive sensing layer or the like, is configured to translate the motion and position of a user's fingers, thumbs, and/or stylus to a relative position on the computing device display. In addition, some such touchpads are “clickable” in that pressing downward on the touchpad effects another user interface input, such as a traditional mouse click or a drag event.
While clickable touchpads are generally very compact and provide significant functionality, conventional clickable touchpads are undesirable in a number of respects. For example, when a user clicks a touchpad using a digit (e.g., a finger or thumb), the action of clicking (and subsequent downward movement of the touchpad surface) can cause the positional information to change due to “rolling” of the digit as well as asymmetrically increasing surface area that results from the digit being pressed down. Furthermore, because of the variability in touchpad geometry and digit size from user-to-user, it is difficult to compensate for this effect using a simple correction factor.
There is therefore a need for systems, devices, and techniques for improved clickable touchpad components that can compensate for digit movement during a click event. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.